Leveling Alts w/ Pet Battles

Post by Thrope

Yes, player experience for pet battles has been nerfed. I stopped questing a resto druid at 87. She was 90 in two days. This was after the March XP nerf. Now I regularly kill two birds with one stone, leveling my pets while also leveling any alts which I don't deem "exciting" enough to quest/dungeon with.

Heirloom gear and the "fast track" guild perk DO MATTER, make the most of those & gear up for your pet battles.

Pet level matters to an extent. The DIFFERENCE between the highest level pet on your team (even if you never swap it into the fight) and the wild pet(s) determines how much XP your toon will get. Furthermore, this difference is based on your pets' levels after the fight: Pets get their XP, pets level up, THEN your toon gets his XP based on the pets' new levels.

The number of wild pets you battle matters. It matters a LOT. Fighting pets 3 levels below you doesn't lose you enough XP to make it worth your trouble to change up your team constantly, but fighting two pets will get you roughly three times the XP as one, and three wild pets get roughly four times the XP as two, or OVER TWELVE times the XP as fighting one. You want to fight three pets at once!

This is where player level comes in. Getting your toon to the higher level areas where you'll fight three pets at once is big, VERY big. Sneak in, portal in, find any relatively safe spot you can that offers ANY level of pets as long as you know you'll get three joining the fight each time.

(For those wondering about the scale as you level, toons in the 30-40 range can expect to get about 4% toward their next level, about 6% in full heirloom gear. Toons just under 90 will get 1 or only half a percent per fight. It's subjective just how substantial this is compared to dungeons or quests, as certain classes & specs can plow through the content faster than others, but there you go. Nine days out of ten, I'd rather run a dozen pet battles than one dungeon.)

How can you use this? Fly a high-level toon through Northrend and find a nice spot with plenty of captureable pets, but not too many mobs to maul whichever toon you want to level up. Note the levels of the pets; you don't want yours too high. In Northrend, having 25's on your team shouldn't be a problem. Pets stop getting XP if the highest on your team is 5 more than the wild pets, but your toon will get XP until the highest pet on your team is 6 more than wild. Keep in mind, if your highest pet levels up at the end of the fight, your toon will get less XP for it. Swap to your low-level toon and run there like your life depends on it, because it does. You might die a few times. Put the pet you want to level up front. You should be able to get away with having the next two at 25, but if not, break out some unmaxed pets and swap them out as they level up.

And always remember, that pet up front needs to DO something that 1st round. Even if it's just take a hit, it doesn't matter, just push a random button before you swap it out or that pet gets no XP. Then you can forget about it the rest of the fight.

This won't get you gear, rep, or gold. Your alt will take a hit like wet tissue paper, but gear doesn't matter much below 60 anyway. I'd also take a break from it no later than 58, as the beginning of Outland gives awesome XP for minimal running back & forth.

Post by rastafaria

it seems that since 5.3 characters no longer get xp from battling wild pets, I have leveled several alts with this but thanks to blizz cannot do it anymore :( I found this out yesterday when I took my level 40 paladin to the goat pasture by halfhill and to my surprise I got no xp at all.

Post by Tilde

it seems that since 5.3 characters no longer get xp from battling wild pets, I have leveled several alts with this but thanks to blizz cannot do it anymore :( I found this out yesterday when I took my level 40 paladin to the goat pasture by halfhill and to my surprise I got no xp at all.

It's a known bug that should be fixed with the next round of server restarts (likely Tuesday).